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Model airplanes and Blackbirds

Headed out tomorrow for another Airplane event with my Blackbird/Superfly. Stuck a Wallyworld CCF pad in it last night and blew the 50 degree wind on my back, got a little warm. That's gonna work great for Newton, IA this weekend where lows are in the low 50's and winds are looking low as well. Highs for the days are 70's.

No hiking, Model Airplane flying and camping at the field. One of these days I'll have to add something to my backpack other then tarp/hammock and suspension but I'll enjoy the few days I get as is. I'll take some photos of the layout. Maybe someone will get interested and join me in a hang. I'd like to use trees as they have some at the field, but I don't know if they are in the right place and if they are big enough. Some silly reason I didn't even think to look at it last month when I stopped by on my way to Oshkosh. Throwing the Texsport stand in the truck just in case. That makes it a pain to get into the get in and out as it's so low to the ground, but it also keeps me pretty insulated from night air as well. And heck, as long as the back isn't touching the ground when your in the hammock, who knows you're not 10 foot in the air?

Well I'm back from Iowa and it was beautiful weather all weekend. Mid 80's during the day and lower 50's at night. Perfect weather for hanging out around the fire pit. Not too cold at night. I took my hammock stand to the field but quickly found a tree next to a wooden swingset that fit the bill. The tree was a good 10 foot around though and used most of my standard BBird webbing leaving a good portion of the other side to hang from the top bar of the swingset. It was made of 2x10's bolted together on top of a 4x4 A frame. Plenty sturdy and the Pine tree wasn't going anywhere it hadn't been in the last 100 years. Pictures of my setup should follow huh?

Friday night, well, Saturday morning I got off to the hammock at about 2. It was getting a little cool but I had loaded it up with my insulated blanket, knee pillow and Walmart little head pillow plus a King size pillow that I use at home. I find it easier to just move that thing on and off of me at home to adjust for room temp and my cat can claw it all night without me getting scratched. And frankly, I'm a hugger so it feels good. So I drifted off with just the pillow over me on the upwind side blocking off what little breeze there was and had my feet under the blanket in the foot box. Woke up an hour or two later and was shivering a bit so I pulled the blanket over me. Woke up bit later and my back was really cold and I was thinking about having my tarp hung so high that it wasn't blocking wind BUT giving me a nice view AND the fact that I hadn't put the CCF pad in my 1.7 Dbl blackbird. But, my blanket is rather big even folded in half so I tipped over on one side and let it hang under my shoulder and I rolled to the that side trapping the blanket and letting it drape over on the other side. Rolling back flat I had about 4 inches under my spine that wasn't covered by blanket and about 5 minutes later, felt that it was plenty good. Woke up just before seven excited to get flying but warm and comfy. If I hadn't had flying to do I would have hung out longer. The 7 oclock wakeup was another of the times when I woke up, saw the noseeum netting and then tarp above me and then remembered I was out somewhere and not in my room at home. It's nice having that feeling instead of the 'Well, the air mattress went flat and I found the pine cone' feeling.

Flew and flew Saturday. Then I re-learned some lessons of flying high dihedral high wing airplanes, inverted, at too slow and too low of an altitude. Dihedral, for those of you who don't know, is the amount of V the wing makes between tips and root(fuse) on an airplane. More Dihedral makes the plane stable in the upright position. Inverted it kind of makes the plane a handful. Heck, I'm a pilot though and I can fly anything upside if I want to, (he says braggadocio-sly). In truth, I can fly pretty well. I'm not a great pilot BUT an average sport pilot with a bunch of practice. This is my first BIG plane and I've been flying it like it was made out of glass. You can't get good if you are afraid to fly so I was making low, inverted, high and mid speed passes over the runway. Finally, during one of the many passes OR to put it more appropriately THE LAST pass, I was a little slow and about 20 feet up. I had a little wobble on the wing which I corrected and when I did so it fell off on the other side worse, which I corrected again, then I realized I wasn't over correcting I was stalling and the plane was way too slow with the nose falling down. There was no time to add throttle and pull out, that time was 5-10 seconds before. Plane just kinda point flopped over with the nose down and fell the 15 feet. Crunch and the wing popped off and the bottom busted out of the fuse PLUS I broke a 20 dollar prop(the most expensive part). Oh well, another lesson learned.
It's a silly plane, just a big touch and go machine, my favorite part of the sport, so I'll have to build yet another fuse for it and recycle as much as I can of this one. The wing and tail are find. I'll need another prop of course. On to the hammock portions.

Last night, knowing it was to be every bit as cool, I smartly put the CCF pad in long before dark and when we went to bed at 1 I had the blanket over my knees, the pillow on the upwind side of the hammock and I was comfy like that till about 4:30 when I woke up gagging. Thinking I had some nasal drainage I took a we sip of water and put a coughdrop in my mouth but it wasn't breaking up so I got up and went to the firering, through some wood on the embers and waited till my throught cleared. That wasn't happening even 15 mintues later so I found a mirror and using my headlight gave a peak at the back of my throat. My stinkin Uvula was about the size of half my pinky. I found that out by slightly coughing while I had my mouth open and the darn thing popped forward and landed on my tounge. YIKES!!!! Well that's definitely something I didn't pack for. Sitting by the fire leaning forward slightly kept me from constantly tugging at it every time I swallowed or breathed. After a bit I went back to the hammock and explored side lay positions which I don't use normally. Found one that was comfortable and that left that darn thing hanging to the side and slept till 7 again. After getting home I went to the Urgent room and I have one of those Zpacks that they over-prescribe and the re-assurances that the swelling will go down soon. I'm upset though, I was really comfortable and nicely warm last night and some silly virus done ruined a good nights sleep.

The fire ring they got was new and if you are looking into putting one in your backyard but don't have a lot of money or just want a basic ring, go to the truck junkyard and see if they have any rims. They bought this one for 20 bucks and it made a wonderfull fire ring. Kept the wood and fire on the inside, radiated heat through the sides. Was slightly thicker then a oil drum and easy to move into position. I'm thinking about putting one in my backyard though my wife will never use it. Maybe the grand-daughter and I can next year during a backyard campout.
Got up this morning and put up a 7 am flight then went and sat by the morning fire a bit. 45 minutes after sunup the tarp and hammock were dry so I stowed em, broke down camp and then made breakfast wraps for everyone. These are nothing fancy but as we had a clubhouse with electricity and a fridge I bought the Southwest style EggBeaters, Mexican blend shreaded cheese, Picante sauce and some Flour tortilla's. Just fry the already loaded EggBeaters up, throw them on a heated tortilla, add cheese, sauce and eat. A little meat wouldn't hurt but it's a quick way to eat some eggs and cheese. Some diced potatoes would go good too.

Cleaned up, said my goodbyes and boom, 4 hours later I was home.

Beautiful weekend doing my favorite hobbies and camping out. Something magical about cool nights with a fire keeping you warm. Dozen off listening to convesations only to wake up and join in, then repeat.

PLUS, last night we all watched an Iridium flare. VERY COOL! Lucky we had a member that keeps track of those and told us where to look. I've watched satelites go over before but this was the first one I got to see this way. It was marked down on his list as a -6 which if I'm right about the scale, is twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest visible star in the sky. The moon comes in at a -20 and although full, didn't hurt our viewing pleasure last night. I also launched several of those hot air tissue paper balloons and flew lighted electric planes at night. Just loads of fun.

Now I'm just trying to see if there is one more time I can ride my cycle to meet up with a buddy from Omaha and camp out at the Indian Springs reserve up there just across the Nebraska boarder. But the season is getting late and my weekend passes probably were up before this weekend.

That sounds like a great weekend. I'm glad to hear that getting sick didn't completely ruin your time.

I also like RC flying, but I don't have the talent, patients, or the funds.

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. - E. B. White (1899 - 1985)